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Dig deep ladies....

PeteysBride Posted:

Dig deep ladies....

Into your memories.

I am using you all as research. I am considering entering a writing contest for a contemporary romance story and I am tossing around the idea of making it wedding related; sort of the whole experience leading up to 'The Day.' Fiction of course and in the romantic comedy vein but I need inspiration. I have some of my own stories and funny happenings just by stuff that happens daily non wedding related but I need other ideas.

TIA!!!
Cpt2007 Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

don't know how funny it is but we thought it was--

by the time the parent dances came around, MIL had already taken off her shoes and was walking around in green crocs! you can totally see them in the photos now too.
PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by Cpt2007

don't know how funny it is but we thought it was--

by the time the parent dances came around, MIL had already taken off her shoes and was walking around in green crocs! you can totally see them in the photos now too.



LOL it doesnt have to be huge things...writing stories is about the small details. A character thats otherwise very prissy toting green crocs under the table is still funny and gives a sense of humor. Thank you!

A bride who will remain nameless once told me that when she told her MIL that she was not gettign married in a church, she was cornered during a big family dinner and asked 'why do you hate God?'

And one by one all of her BIL's and her FH started disappearing leaving her alone LMAO. I rolled. It was soooo classic romantic comedy.

carolinebr Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

How much time to do you have? I have a few doozies for ya.
ant n tilde Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

Well maybe you can do something about a first generation American girl born into OTB Italian parents who have VERY specific ideas about what an AMERICAN wedding is all about.

for example:

My mom cried because I had a small bridal party, she had to explain to all of her friends that I DID have friends - I just didn't want them in the bridal party. She also didn't understand how I didn't have all the in-laws ( SIL, BIL ) in the wedding. She went on and on about large bridal parties. . . so much so that you would think that in Italy they have huge bridal parties but actually they just have the equivalent of the best man/maid of honor who don't even wear special clothing.

Or the bride that had to stop THREE times on the way to her first dress shopping appointment due to. . .um stomach issues

PegaLega Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

not to sound stupid but isnt the whole idea of writing fiction stories all about using the imagination and actually creating a story from that
PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by PegaLega

not to sound stupid but isnt the whole idea of writing fiction stories all about using the imagination and actually creating a story from that



Well the story is original but how do you think writers get ideas? Its not like you use all of what you have as inspiration like... hmm let me think of an example.

Ok today for instance I am walking down the block from the post office with my frosty and see people eating outdoors ina bistro type resturant and notice they ALL hve two loaves of bread on the tables and yet most people are not touching them. This was delicious french looking rbead and I notice most of the women closest to the railing by me have salads and have moved the beead as far from them as possibly can be.

It amused me because its just people watching but if you look at the people who had the bread pushed away and untouched, they're all young, fit looking professionals. The older, few heavyset people had the bread half gone.

So I started thinking how that could work into a stroy as a minor scene; the friends walking and the one who is getting married is chugging a frosty despite everyone screamign she enes to be losing weight and thinking how she should be shamed because look how everyone around her has self control over something as simple as bread and how that leads to her thinking they have control over their lives and she doesn't especially with the wedding plannign etc etc.

Make sense?

Stories are built on dedas just like an artist sometimes use physical inspiration and then builds on it.

Like if you watch a romantic comedy, all those funny little scenes are just individual moments strung together. Thats what I am looking for with ideas. things to kick me off if that makes sense and to breathe life and individuality into the characters.

A story i won a competition with once was about a character who was a little ecclectic and wacky and one of the ways I 'showed' that rather than just told 'She's wacky' is that she had a tiny apartment but a shopping obsession and when a guy she was interested in came over that she'd met through a dating service, her roomate accidentally started a fire because the main character stored her new clothing purchases in the oven because they never used it to cook-always ordered out.

It was a hysterical scene and led to others and it was all inspired by the fact I was told by my personal trainer his oven was broken one day so he was using it for storage.

Its just about moments and brainstorming. Sometimes you can create an entire story from just one event.
PegaLega Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by PeteysBride


Posted by PegaLega

not to sound stupid but isnt the whole idea of writing fiction stories all about using the imagination and actually creating a story from that



Well the story is original but how do you think writers get ideas? Its not like you use all of what you have as inspiration like... hmm let me think of an example.

Ok today for instance I am walking down the block from the post office with my frosty and see people eating outdoors ina bistro type resturant and notice they ALL hve two loaves of bread on the tables and yet most people are not touching them. This was delicious french looking rbead and I notice most of the women closest to the railing by me have salads and have moved the rbead as far from them as possibly can be.

It amused me because its just people watching but if you look at the people who ahd the bread pushed away and untouched, they're all young, fit looking professionals. The older, few heavyset people ahd the bread half gone.

So I started thinking how that coudl work into a stroy as a minor scene; the friends alkign and the one who is getting married is chugging a frosty despite everyone screamign she enes to be losing weight and thinking how she should be shamed because lookhow everyone around ehr has self control over something as simple as bread and how that leads to her thinking they have control over their lives and she doesn't especially with the wedding plannign etc etc.

Make sense?

Stories are built on dieas just like an artist sometimes use physical inspiration and then builds on it.

Like fi you watch a romantic comedy, all those funyn little scenes are just individual moments strung together. Thats what Im looking for with ideas. things to kick me off if that makes sense and to breathe life and individuality into the characters.




ah i see, in my creative writing class (years ago ) it was all about imagination and letting it roll, I was always taught to be a good writer you created something from your own experiences, but what you said makes complete sense.

ETA:Becuase i cant type and speak outloud
lillprincess54 Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

well here is a little something i got into a fight with my sister after we where dont taking pictures and heading to the rh i wanted her to help me remove my veil and she persists that i need to keep it on all night because



I MUST WEAR MY VEIL FOR THE 1ST TIME WE HAVE SEX AS HUSBAND AND WIFE
What Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by PeteysBride


Posted by PegaLega

not to sound stupid but isnt the whole idea of writing fiction stories all about using the imagination and actually creating a story from that



Well the story is original but how do you think writers get ideas? Its not like you use all of what you have as inspiration like... hmm let me think of an example.

Ok today for instance I am walking down the block from the post office with my frosty and see people eating outdoors ina bistro type resturant and notice they ALL hve two loaves of bread on the tables and yet most people are not touching them. This was delicious french looking rbead and I notice most of the women closest to the railing by me have salads and have moved the beead as far from them as possibly can be.

It amused me because its just people watching but if you look at the people who had the bread pushed away and untouched, they're all young, fit looking professionals. The older, few heavyset people had the bread half gone.

So I started thinking how that could work into a stroy as a minor scene; the friends walking and the one who is getting married is chugging a frosty despite everyone screamign she enes to be losing weight and thinking how she should be shamed because look how everyone around her has self control over something as simple as bread and how that leads to her thinking they have control over their lives and she doesn't especially with the wedding plannign etc etc.

Make sense?

Stories are built on dedas just like an artist sometimes use physical inspiration and then builds on it.

Like if you watch a romantic comedy, all those funny little scenes are just individual moments strung together. Thats what I am looking for with ideas. things to kick me off if that makes sense and to breathe life and individuality into the characters.

A story i won a competition with once was about a character who was a little ecclectic and wacky and one of the ways I 'showed' that rather than just told 'She's wacky' is that she had a tiny apartment but a shopping obsession and when a guy she was interested in came over that she'd met through a dating service, her roomate accidentally started a fire because the main character stored her new clothing purchases in the oven because they never used it to cook-always ordered out.

It was a hysterical scene and led to others and it was all inspired by the fact I was told by my personal trainer his oven was broken one day so he was using it for storage.

Its just about moments and brainstorming. Sometimes you can create an entire story from just one event.



what competition did you win?
PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by PegaLega
ah i see, in my creative writing class (years ago ) it was all about imagination and letting it roll, I was always taught to be a good writer you created something from your own experiences, but what you said makes complete sense.



Letting it roll works too but you usually have to have some kind of starting point right? Thats what brainstorming is, even if its loosely done and not written down. I brainstorm in my head all the time.

I see something that makes me think 'Hmm what if I staretd a story with a character who...' and then the story writes itself from there. Lets take Tilde's story; it wouldn't make a novel but it would defiently add to the interactions between characters and help set a mood espeically between the relationship with mother and daughter.

BTW Tilde, that happened to me too! My mom forced me to put ym 3 kid cousins in the wedding. The youngest was 14, the oldest 20....
PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by What

what competition did you win?



LOL I am SO not telling you because it was under a pen name and it was of 'erotic content' although I can't write a sex scene for beans.
But I was $275 dollars richer afterwards. Another one was $150. So yes I am not making huge $$ here but it allows me to write. I write regardless-its in my head all the time like narration.


But I have won a few... I am just a chicken crap when it comes to publishing. An editor was working on em sending one of the entries to a division of HQ (harlequin) because now they do mroe than just the smutty romances but I lost steam and couldn't deal with possible criticisim so I bailed.
PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by lillprincess54

well here is a little something i got into a fight with my sister after we where dont taking pictures and heading to the rh i wanted her to help me remove my veil and she persists that i need to keep it on all night because



I MUST WEAR MY VEIL FOR THE 1ST TIME WE HAVE SEX AS HUSBAND AND WIFE



MeNBobs Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

How are these?


You take your gay best friend to a wedding as a date then you fall in love with him.

You hire a male escort for the weekend so your family won't annoy you for not having a date and you fall in love.

You have 4 weddings in one weekend and a funeral.

The groom has an identical twin that just happens to be a wanted axe murderer.

You have an awesome wedding at your parent's house. Fronk is your funny DOC he keeps asking you what flavor wedding cockk you would like.

You fall in love with your wedding singer (this story would be great if it were set in the 80's)
Aug07OFCbride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....

the veil sex thing is hysterical!!

heres my thought on the other thing...really nothing you read or watch in a movie is all that novel (fresh and new) these days IMO. stories are rewritten or spinned-off or tweaked but themes are always taken from already existing themes, inspired by other stories/events, etc. DH is finishing up his first novel and he's inspired by SO many other novels that he's read over the years (he's a big reader!!!!). There is no way to be entirely original, regardless of how bad ppl want or try to be. It's just about all been done and half the time we use something that we don't realize we subconsciously filtered in from somewhere else! i dont think theres any problem at all with getting ideas from other places. i don't know a writer who hasn't.

wish i had some good stories to share...it was just really little silly things that made me go ...

DH's bro is from OOT and he left the wedding during the CH hour right after asking whether he was needed for any more formal BP portraits. I thought he had to make a quick run for something impt. I dunno. I didn't care bc I was wrapped up in the day and in all my glory. Well he actually went to pick up some girl in NYC that he had met up with for a blind date for the first time like a day earlier. I didn't even know what was going on til I realize he is missing for BP announcement into reception! DH's other bro had to take 1 BM on each arm so it didn't seem weird for one to walk in alone. The bro shows back up during dinner. Some chick comes up to congratulate me and I was in such a good mood so I didn't care but I was like w t f is going on here, lol. Obv we just got an extra chair for her. Later I heard she was demanding her own bottle of wine in front of her, that she was a vegetarian so she needed a special meal made, etc. He never spoke to her again after that. Just a random date at my wedding.

Other random stuff-
DS and my nephew pulled up two chairs and sat at me and DH's table during dinner. lol I didn't care at all, but it wasn't your stereotypical wedding dinner. I was cutting up their food and all of that.

My sis changed her little ones who were in the BP into comfier clothes for the reception, which i didn't care about. But then DH, without telling me, has my 7 yr old step son change into some really casual polo shirt and we still have tons of pics taken for the rest of the night so it looks kinda funny.

DS also did the rock sign with his hand in like 90% of our formal portraits and I never knew til I saw the proofs. Kinda funny.

DS needed a hair trim on his bang area so DH cut it, but I thought it looked really funny so I had him take DS to a barber, who was like..uh his hair is already all cut but if you want me too, i do it, so he cut off even more. It just kept getting shorter and shorter but still looked funny so DH tried to fix it and made it even worse, right before the wedding. DS was also sucking air in way too hard from an empty water bottle the day before and totally irritated his mouth and got this huge circle around his lips that looked hysterical. you can kinda see it in some pics.

The naked man in the window at Danfords harassing my sisters at night and later finding the picture that DH's best man had taken of that same guy the day before- he is in the window in his tighty whities with binoculars, peeping around. So creepy.

Me trying to figure out how to safely and quickly get from my room at danfords down to our car in my kinda heavy dress and my shoes...it was kinda hard for me to walk around, so picture me sitting on my wheelchair, but the wheelchair is covered by my dress. im just zooming along in the powerchair but it looks like im the floating bride and my MOH is holding up parts of my dress as I float along. it was a scene!

oh, and I forget to bustle my dress for the reception.

but those are mostly day-of stories, not leading up.
Aug07OFCbride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by MeNBobs

How are these?


You take your gay best friend to a wedding as a date then you fall in love with him.

You hire a male escort for the weekend so your family won't annoy you for not having a date and you fall in love.

You have 4 weddings in one weekend and a funeral.

The groom has an identical twin that just happens to be a wanted axe murderer.

You have an awesome wedding at your parent's house. Fronk is your funny DOC he keeps asking you what flavor wedding cockk you would like.

You fall in love with your wedding singer (this story would be great if it were set in the 80's)



PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by Aug07OFCbride


Posted by MeNBobs

How are these?


You take your gay best friend to a wedding as a date then you fall in love with him.

You hire a male escort for the weekend so your family won't annoy you for not having a date and you fall in love.

You have 4 weddings in one weekend and a funeral.

The groom has an identical twin that just happens to be a wanted axe murderer.

You have an awesome wedding at your parent's house. Fronk is your funny DOC he keeps asking you what flavor wedding cockk you would like.

You fall in love with your wedding singer (this story would be great if it were set in the 80's)






PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by carolinebr

How much time to do you have? I have a few doozies for ya.



LOL I want em all. These stories just amuse me. i have to share mine too.
PeteysBride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by Aug07OFCbride

the veil sex thing is hysterical!!

heres my thought on the other thing...really nothing you read or watch in a movie is all that novel (fresh and new) these days IMO. stories are rewritten or spinned-off or tweaked but themes are always taken from already existing themes, inspired by other stories/events, etc. DH is finishing up his first novel and he's inspired by SO many other novels that he's read over the years (he's a big reader!!!!). There is no way to be entirely original, regardless of how bad ppl want or try to be. It's just about all been done and half the time we use something that we don't realize we subconsciously filtered in from somewhere else! i dont think theres any problem at all with getting ideas from other places. i don't know a writer who hasn't.

wish i had some good stories to share...it was just really little silly things that made me go ...

DH's bro is from OOT and he left the wedding during the CH hour right after asking whether he was needed for any more formal BP portraits. I thought he had to make a quick run for something impt. I dunno. I didn't care bc I was wrapped up in the day and in all my glory. Well he actually went to pick up some girl in NYC that he had met up with for a blind date for the first time like a day earlier. I didn't even know what was going on til I realize he is missing for BP announcement into reception! DH's other bro had to take 1 BM on each arm so it didn't seem weird for one to walk in alone. The bro shows back up during dinner. Some chick comes up to congratulate me and I was in such a good mood so I didn't care but I was like w t f is going on here, lol. Obv we just got an extra chair for her. Later I heard she was demanding her own bottle of wine in front of her, that she was a vegetarian so she needed a special meal made, etc. He never spoke to her again after that. Just a random date at my wedding.

Other random stuff-
DS and my nephew pulled up two chairs and sat at me and DH's table during dinner. lol I didn't care at all, but it wasn't your stereotypical wedding dinner. I was cutting up their food and all of that.

My sis changed her little ones who were in the BP into comfier clothes for the reception, which i didn't care about. But then DH, without telling me, has my 7 yr old step son change into some really casual polo shirt and we still have tons of pics taken for the rest of the night so it looks kinda funny.

DS also did the rock sign with his hand in like 90% of our formal portraits and I never knew til I saw the proofs. Kinda funny.

DS needed a hair trim on his bang area so DH cut it, but I thought it looked really funny so I had him take DS to a barber, who was like..uh his hair is already all cut but if you want me too, i do it, so he cut off even more. It just kept getting shorter and shorter but still looked funny so DH tried to fix it and made it even worse, right before the wedding. DS was also sucking air in way too hard from an empty water bottle the day before and totally irritated his mouth and got this huge circle around his lips that looked hysterical. you can kinda see it in some pics.

The naked man in the window at Danfords harassing my sisters at night and later finding the picture that DH's best man had taken of that same guy the day before- he is in the window in his tighty whities with binoculars, peeping around. So creepy.

Me trying to figure out how to safely and quickly get from my room at danfords down to our car in my kinda heavy dress and my shoes...it was kinda hard for me to walk around, so picture me sitting on my wheelchair, but the wheelchair is covered by my dress. im just zooming along in the powerchair but it looks like im the floating bride and my MOH is holding up parts of my dress as I float along. it was a scene!

oh, and I forget to bustle my dress for the reception.

but those are mostly day-of stories, not leading up.



LOL I like those. All ideas and EXACTLY! Thank you for hitting it on the head and clarifying for me better.

all genres are flooded now so if you choose a genre like I write romantic comedies, they all follow a sort of structure, but what makes one fail and one succeed is the characters and the interactions. It can be the SAME story but the characters are what makes it come alive. PEREFECT examples: Made of Honor vs My Best friends Wedding. The stories were near identical but MYBW rocked because the characters were a riot. Made of Honor, not so much. Father of the Bride wasn't anything really original but the characters were memorable. Same for Steel magnolias. The story was blah but the interactions were what made it.

Aug07OFCbride Posted:

Re: Dig deep ladies....


Posted by PeteysBride

LOL I like those. All ideas and EXACTLY! Thank you for hitting it on the head and clarifying for me better.

all genres are flooded now so if you choose a genre like I write romantic comedies, they all follow a sort of structure, but what makes one fail and one succeed is the characters and the interactions. It can be the SAME story but the characters are what makes it come alive. PEREFECT examples: Made of Honor vs My Best friends Wedding. The stories were near identical but MYBW rocked because the characters were a riot. Made of Honor, not so much. Father of the Bride wasn't anything really original but the characters were memorable. Same for Steel magnolias. The story was blah but the interactions were what made it.




exactly. Dh writes fantasy and there is a structure and flow to the way those are written too, but the WAY it is written and the character development is what can really make the story IMO.

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